A Good Week at Belle Plaine!!

As the year begins to wind down there are all kinds of events occurring in a variety of areas at Belle Plaine Schools.  It's an exciting time for students and staff and I jet want to highlight a few of the things that took place this week.

National Honor Society Induction:
On Monday night the Belle Plaine National Honor Society Chapter welcomed three new members in the 2014 class.  National Honor Society Sponsor Leah Mast and the current NHS members held a brief ceremony in the high school cafeteria to honor this years inductees.  Added to the chapter were senior Lane Bachelder and juniors Kayla Toennies and Josh Long.  Congratulations to our new members and we look forward to working with them in the future with NHS activities.

SICL Conference Track Meet:
On Tuesday night the SICL Conference Girl's and Boy's Track Meet was held at Iowa Valley.  The Belle Plaine boys team had a strong night in Marengo as they took 1st place in the team standings out distancing 2nd place Lynnville-Sully by 28 points.  The Track championship follows-up a Cross Country Title the boys took in the fall and provides the teams a good deal of momentum as the prep for the State Qualifying Meet to be held next Thursday, May 15 here at Belle Plaine.  Congratulations to the entire team and coaching staff.

The Belle Plaine Girl's team also had a good showing at the conference meet finishing in 4th place overall.  This years squad has many new individuals filling key spots and is making good progress toward a very strong finish this season.  The girls team will also be running at the State Qualifying Meet here in Belle Plaine next Thursday.

Underage Drinking Openhouse:
This last Wednesday night Belle Plaine hosted a community conversation about underage drinking in the high school gym.  The event was organized by the Belle Plaine Win With Wellness students in cooperation with the Benton County Area Substance Abuse Council.  The primary goal of the event was to raise awareness of the issue of underage drinking in our community and deliver a message to students, parents, and the community that we as a community truly value our young people and are committed to supporting them.  Presentations were given by members of the Win With Wellness group and a mock bedroom was set up to help parents recognize signs of possible drinking or drug abuse.  Prior to the event, Mr. Yilek and I agreed that if 50 people came it would be a successful event.  When nearly 150 were in attendance we definitely declared the night a huge success.  David Condry of ASAC shared that the same event a week earlier in Vinton drew about 35 people.  The number of people who came shows that we do have a great community that cares about what our kids are doing and want to do whatever it takes to keep them safe.  I just want to say "GREAT JOB" to Mr. Yilek and all the students in Win With Wellness who did such an outstanding job with this.  With great leaders like this we are going to make a difference in the lives of students at Belle Plaine.